Friday, April 29, 2011

In various versions of MIDSUMMER this group is call “the
rustics”, “the mechanicals”, the “workmen”, the “clowns”… and now the “Beatles.”

A luscious vision of the Britten opera set in a mythical India with Bollywood overtones. From Opera Australia, directed and lusciously designed by
Baz Luhrman (of “R + J” and MOULIN ROUGE) and his wife Catherine Martin.

A ballet by John Neumeier for the Hamburg Ballet in 1977. It
uses the familiar Mendelssohn score, but the spirit kingdom sequences employ music
from the contemporary Hungarian composer
György Ligeti. Narration in this clip is in German, but there is much to listen
to and see.

A trailer for the 1999 movie with Michelle Pfeiffer as Tytania,
Calista Flockhart as Helena, Stanlety Tucci as Puck, Christian Bale as Demetrius
and, most notably, Kevin Klein as a totally unique Bottom.

The Max Reinhardt film from 1935—Hollywood
extravagance merges with an equally wild German baroque-expressionistic
aesthetic…add Mickey Rooney (age 15) as a manic Puck and rather snarly James Cagney as Bottom, and you have a
totally fascinating event. We’ll talk more about this Dream in a later blog
entry.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

The
wait is nearly over! Tomorrow evening BLO brings one of the world’s
most beloved romantic comedies to the opera stage with a NEW production
of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The performances mark David Angus’s first appearance at the podium as BLO’s Music Director. Metropolitan Opera regular Susanna Phillips returns joined by John Gaston and rising sensation Nadine Sierra with English National Opera favorite Andrew Shore as Bottom.

A
fusion of Benjamin Britten’s sparkling score and William Shakespeare’s
whimsical play tells of the romantic adventures of two pairs of young
lovers and the king and queen of the fairies. Audiences are transported
to the luminous world of Oberon, Tytania, Puck and their fairy
attendants where the line between fantasy and reality is hopelessly
blurred.

A Midsummer Night's Dream is onstage at the Citi Performing Arts Center Shubert Theare April 29 - May 10.

Below, David Angus muses on opera, Benjamin Britten, and the magic of Midsummer…

Monday, April 25, 2011

It was a great day for Boston on Monday (4/18).
The sun glinted off the gold dome of the State House; the blue sky was
glowing, in the radiant morning light a seemingly endless stream of bright
yellow school buses glided down Tremont
Street carrying hardy runners to the race.
And then -- it was by many accounts the best Boston Marathon ever. Geoffrey
Mutai took almost a minute off the world's record - an astounding feat. The
USA's Ryan
Hall came in fourth and still set a record time for an American. The women's
race had an unbelievably dramatic finish as Caroline Kilel out sprinted
American Desiree Davila (sounds like an opera singer to me) in the final
stretch and then collapsed at the finish with a victory in her Boston debut.
Davila was only two seconds behind Kilel and set a course record for US women
herself. If you didn't catch any of this live or on TV check out The Boston
Globe website ... pure theater.

And so what if the
International Track and Field Federation doesn't recognize the Boston Marathon
(it doesn't meet its topographical requirements -- something about too much
"drop") -- we, (and the world) know, that the Boston Marathon is the
oldest, most famous and by every count the best -- and it will always be so.

As if that weren't enough,
it was announced Monday that the Pulitzer Prize in Criticism went to Sebastian
Smee of The Boston Globe for his "vivid and
exuberant writing about art" and his knack for "bringing great works
to life with love and appreciation." Smee, a native of Australia, joined The Boston Globe in 2008.
Yesterday he lauded the Globe
for "a belief that the arts matter and that good writing about the arts is
going to be an important part of newspapers as they evolve."

And, if even that weren't
enough, congratulations to Opera Boston as Zhou Long won the Pulitzer Prize in
Music for Madame
White Snake, premiered by the company in 2010.

Performance, strength,
determination, creativity, innovation, excitement and empowerment for the
arts - all alive in Boston.

So there's this contest. You could win 2 tickets to opening night of A Midsummer Night's Dream and a $200 gift certificate to O Ya. Those stakes are pretty high and today is the final day to enter! Need some inspiration? Your midsummer dream can be anything, like say, a video featuring the Sims.

Friday, April 22, 2011

The
age old question of “What should I wear” is always a dilemma for women
regardless of the occasion. But going to the opera is considered a special
occasion so it is a chance to get dolled up. While it once was a tuxedo and
ball gown affair, most people dress in whatever they feel most comfortable
(snuggies aside). Professional attire is always a safe bet, and it isn’t a bad
idea to bring a sweater or jacket incase it’s chilly in the theatre!

If you’re still
unsure of wardrobe choices, Karen and Tyler made this helpful video before
BLO’s Tosca this past November.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Fashionista alert: Joseph Gualtiere, founder and editor of the new online magazine UpTempo, has posted some fun behind-the-scenes pics from his photo shoot with our own Nadine Sierra on Facebook.

How about a sneak peak?

Nadine Sierra gets glam for the photo shoot!

Nadine Sierra testing out the seats in the Shubert Theatre during the photo shoot.

Nadine, who will sing Tytania in our upcoming production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, spent last Thursday morning frolicking around the Shubert in about $30,000 worth of couture, thanks to Joseph’s amazing power to wrangle the most stunning gowns and stilettos from Saks 5th Avenue. And as a witness to every look – from the Emporio Armani jacket to the little black Fendi… the flowy Marc Jacobs to the show-stopping Alexander McQueen floral gown – this gorgeous young diva can’t make a bad picture. (And we say diva with nothing but love, Nadine – because you were a dream… gracious, creative, energetic, a real pro… and early even!)

UpTempo, which will focus on fashion and the performing arts, launches on April 21 with Nadine on the cover and a soiree at the Liberty, part of the hotel’s Fashionably Late series. Gowns from the recent BLO hit Agrippina will be featured, along with frocks from BSO’s popular Project Beethoven competition. The party, where Joseph promises dancers, singers, a red carpet, surprise guests and even an aerialist swinging above our heads (watch out!), kicks off at 8 p.m. and will go til’ last round. (The runway show starts at 10 p.m.). You know we’ll be in the front row!

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

With our new production of Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream opening at the end of the month, we want to see your visions of midsummer dreams.

Students of RAW Art Works
in Lynn, MA,
inspired by hearing Britten's music in class, created their own drawings of one
scene of fantastical forests which were in turn reproduced by the painters at
the American Repertory Theater Scene Shop as elements for the BLO production.

Get in on the fun and send us a visual, a short video, a
poem, a song - any creative expression of YOUR 'midsummer night's dream.'

Submissions will be featured at In the Wings and all
submissions will be entered into a raffle to win a pair of tickets to opening
night of A
Midsummer Nights Dream, Friday April 29th along
with a gift certificate valued at $200 to O Ya for dinner before the show!

Hey,
here are some sketches I made of the Moon...not quite actually Midsummer time
but it was close...around the 3rd of May. We'd been outdoors skinny dipping in the Arno and the moon was so bright and luminous that I
thought I ought to record it…Happily I'd brought along some ink and paper and
using my girl friend Lucezia's back as a smooth if slightly damp surface I
drew away. Enjoy everybody.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

On Thursday April 7, 2011, I was lucky enough to score tickets to
a Brett Dean concert with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra. The program consisted of Johannes Brahms Tragic Overture, op. 81; Dean’s The Lost Art of Letter Writing; and Ross
Harris’ Symphony No. 4. The concerts are
held at Auckland’s Town Hall, in an auditorium modeled after the old Leipzig
Gewandhaus (it is remarkable to see, since Symphony Hall was modeled after the
old Gewandhaus as well). Unfortunately,
the Gewandhaus was destroyed in World War II.

Photography was not allowed, so I’ll just have to link to a photo. The hall itself was recently renovated, so it
is a nice enough space to hear a concert.
Tickets are much more expensive than back in Boston (a student rush
ticket is NZ$15.00, which is US$11.75).
Although, expensive, I was able to sit right above the horns, which was
a great experience, especially for the Harris.
The Auckland Philharmonia is a great orchestra and I is a rewarding
experience to go to their concerts.

The Brahms was nicely paced and atmospheric. It felt weighty enough for my tastes, even if
the orchestra was too small (only five basses!?!) The balance was correct, which is all that
matters. The Dean was a nice violin
concerto (with a blue-haired Kristian Winther).
It is the only time I have ever seen a soloist come out on stage with
noticeably color-dyed hair. The piece
itself was certainly interesting and the soloist was amazing.

The Harris was obviously a labor of love for the composer. He is one of New Zealand’s most well-known
composers, and people seem to really enjoy his work. In fact, this concert was recorded to be
released at a later date. The
composition was dedicated to Mahinarangi Tocker, a singer, composer, and poet
who died three years ago. Each of the
pieces five sections is linked by a “bell toll.” It has some great brass and string
writing. But, one has to wonder, if all
the percussion noise was really necessary.
Is that what compositions must have, lots of senseless noise? I hope not.
Melody is still quite important.
The brain, in fact, is able to link and follow melody quite easily.

All in all, this was a concert worth going to. I have even just become a student subscriber to the APO, so it will
be nice to finally hear all the concerts.
Up next week, a concert called Organ and Orchestra. It will be fun to finally hear the organ
play!

Friday, April 8, 2011

A
lot of people disregard opera as the type of performance for them. For whatever
the number of reasons, they simply assume they won’t enjoy it: it will be
boring, it’s for old people, I won’t understand it, it’s too expensive, etc;
but here are a few reasons why you may enjoy it more than you think.

1)
Before we had Netflix, Hulu, DVR and even TV, we had opera. How else do you
think people got their fix of scandalous love affairs, evil plots, violence and
of course romantic love stories? They went to the opera of course! And it
didn’t hurt that while watching these stories audience members got to take in
beautiful and lavish costumes and sets, as well as listen to some of the best
composers of their day.

2)
It’s something different. I know there are some nights when my friends and I
want to get together but there’s nothing to do. A night at the opera is an
exciting opportunity – a chance to get dressed up and experience something you
might not have done otherwise. Plus, how cool is it to be able to say you
attended an opera when asked what you did over the weekend? If you’re a
student, tickets aren’t expensive at all – with a valid student ID you can get
50% off tickets. If you’re not a student, you can still get great prices on
tickets – the Balcony seats start at around $34.

3)
The length of an opera may seem daunting, but when you factor in that there are
usually 1-3 intermissions of typically 15 minutes long, that’s almost 45
minutes shorter than what you initially expected. That’s just about the length
of a movie – plus, you get time to stretch and take a break so that you don’t
miss anything!

4)
Who doesn’t love the chance to see amazingly talented people perform live?
Opera singers have their work cut out for them – not only do they have to sing
these detailed and intricate pieces of music, but they also have to act. If you
love going to the movies and seeing your favorite actor in a challenging role,
then you’d certainly enjoy being in the same room as such talented performers.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

The entire experience was any woman's dream come true really. To have the opportunity to be photographed in beautiful clothes for a magazine feels incredible, like the movies. It's something we always see in films and wish that could happen in real life. For me, I've never felt like a diva and don't necessarily want to be one. But living a few moments in stunning Christian Louboutin's and sweeping the stage with an erotic Alexander McQueen dress made me feel like an opera diva! I got to play a part in many different designers and even walked with more character as I left the theater. But that's the point of wearing a $2,000 dress sometimes...to feel like your worth every penny and more. Each fold, pattern, color, texture, made me feel like I could express everything I felt in the clothes! And thats the point of fashion, to express something about yourself without the words written all over your body. Instead, there's fabric illustrating your personal tastes on your own skin. It's a fabulous feeling and I truly loved every minute of it.

Sure, this is a realistic detailed technical drawing of backstage machinery... but it seems to me an intriguingly apt metaphorical representation of the theater event itself ...as seen from "the wings" . All that beauty and spectacle and meaning, drama and performance that the audience sees ( or is allowed to see) literally depends on , is run by , is organized by, an intricate series of hidden wheels, ropes, pulleys, tracks, interconnected cogs all seamlessly working together (or anyway that's the plan) These ropes, the cogs etc are real enough but they might also represent the mental systems of interconnected plans, thoughts, imagination, instincts and even whims ...the backstage of the mind as it were ...of a group of theater people who have come together to work, to create a play... an opera ..an event...

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

While it is common
for operas to be sung in the languages they were written in (Italian, German,
etc), not everyone that attends these operas necessarily speaks the language.
While it would be great to learn a different language, it’s not necessary when
attending a production. BLO, like many opera companies now uses surtitles, which are
line-by-line translations of the opera’s text that are projected on screens
near the stage during a performance. Although it seems like it would be
distracting, it’s just like watching a foreign film – eventually you forget
that you are reading along and can just enjoy the music and the beautiful
sounds of the original language! At the Shubert Theatre, the surtitles will be
on screens to both the left and right of the stage.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Someone once said that all the theater needed was passion and a platform. Well, that’s a start. But you also need an audience. And what’s around that platform? Empty space? Or, all the hidden mystery of the backstage space that the audience finds so fascinating? Mysteries hidden in the wings…

In addition to wings, 18th and 19th century sets had borders—pieces that closed in the stage setting above. Of course we still use these terms today. These elements are sometimes called masking or torm(entors) or teasers; interesting how the terminology suggests a hidden world tantalizingly just out of sight of the audience, a view desired and denied. Does the magic and mysterious power of the theater disappear when you are allowed to see how it is created? Or, is it deepened?

Well, let’s use this forum to show and discuss and debate everything. No limits, no borders, no masks. Let’s fly off on wings of curiosity and knowledge, reveal the semi-hidden and participate in the creation of the theatrical event. The production of any piece takes place not in the theater space only but also and more crucially in the minds and hearts and guts of you, the audience.